http://www.armystrongstories.com ArmyStrongStories.com is a U.S. Army Accessions Command blog where Soldiers share their authentic stories about life in the Army through blog entries, photos and video. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/matthew-burke/cultural-immersion-in-china/ I am Cadet Matthew Burke, a student at the United States Military Academy.  Tomorrow I will be fortunate enough to travel to Beijing China.  The trip is part of a cultural immersion through the Academy's Department of Foreign Language.  The purpose of the trip is for cadets to become exposed to a foreign culture and practice their language skills. Around a dozen other cadets will also be on the trip with myself.  All of us are students in either beginner or intermediate Chinese classes.  I have never traveled outside of the U.S. and am very excited to experience foreign customs and tradition.  We will be visiting many of the iconic Chinese locations including the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City.  Stay tuned for new posts in the coming week.  I will also try and include some neat photos and video footage.  Regards, Matt Burke Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:58:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/matthew-burke/cultural-immersion-in-china/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/john-cook/the-refugee-camp/ The convoy of seven vehicles pulls off the main road and drives slowly over the hard, broken ground and gets as close as possible to the refugee camp. This one has about two hundred people; men, women and children of all ages. The soldiers that will provide security quickly get out of the armored SUVs and form a protective ring around the other vehicles. To call it a refugee camp does violence to the word camp. This place is not a camp. Its a few acres of hard dirt that has no value to the owner right now. The people on it have nowhere else to go so they have gathered here, made some pitiful attempts to make it habitable and we call it a camp because there is no other word that comes close to what it really is. There are no walls to protect these people; there is no electricity, no water, no toilets, no grass or trees; just a few mud huts and a scattering of tents. Often, if the people are nomads such as Kuchi, there will be a few animals tied to stakes in the ground. These camps are not hard to find on the outskirts of Kabul; they are everywhere. There are no plans to move these people anywhere else because they are of no use to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. They have no money, no political power, no connections, nothing. Lacking all of these things, they are little more than an embarrassment to the government. So they will stay here until they are forced to move and then they will find another miserable piece of ground to occupy and the cycle goes on. But for now, this is the closest thing they can call home and it is here we come to hand out clothes, blankets, toys and food. There is a Ministry of Refugee Affairs here that has the mission of taking care of people in this situation but that doesn’t mean much in Afghanistan; there is also a Ministry of Counter-narcotics. The official explanation for so many refugees here is the war but that’s not exactly true. Many people show up in refugee camps as a result of tribal fighting, land disputes or simply to settle old scores that may have festered for decades. There are always widows in the camp with two or three children. Having nowhere else to go, they end up here. There are no schools for the children which mean they will soon join the ranks of an adult population that is eighty percent illiterate. There are no medical facilities to treat simple illnesses which will eventually develop into life threatening conditions. Some of the children already bear the marks of war that they will carry forever—a foot missing here, a hand there, a blind boy holding his sister’s hand. Each Friday, the chaplain at Camp Eggers organizes these mercy missions to the camps to hand out the things Americans have sent him. The program is known as Voluntary Community Relations with the emphasis on the volunteer part because no one at Camp Eggers is compelled to go on these missions. However, the chaplain always has more volunteers than he needs. This is what Americans do and have always done for people in desperate need. Rank is of no importance on these missions; colonels, sergeants and civilians work side by side to make the operation a success. Official, high ranking delegations from Washington and other capitals come to Kabul in a steady stream to assess the situation and to find more, and better, ways to save Afghanistan. They travel to a couple of provinces, visit a training center or a new ministry in the making, initiate a new initiative and maybe have lunch with the president. But their very tight itinerary never seems to have time for a visit to a refugee camp. Perhaps it’s just as well; these camps do not easily lend themselves to a photo op and there is no way to spin them into a good news story. For security reasons, the chaplain tries to limit the time at the camps to about an hour. On this day, we arrive late in the morning and the cook fires are already going. A dirty blue, hazy, cloud of smoke hangs over the camp from the wood fires. The winter is the worst season for the refugees because the only source of heat for warmth and cooking is firewood and it is always in short supply. Most of the trees in the Kabul area have been cut and burned. Now, firewood has to come from the north or Pakistan and it is not cheap. While one group of volunteers hand out toys to the children, another group unloads the donations from the back of a box truck to the adults lined up to receive them. When everything has been handed out, we say goodbye to the refugees and load up for the return trip. Next Friday another camp or orphanage will be selected and the volunteers will be back in action. There is no shortage of places to visit. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:46:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/john-cook/the-refugee-camp/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andres-pazmin/portugal-here-i-come/ I am lucky enough to be participating in the Foreign Academy Exchange Program (FAEP) for the second time.  My first exchange was to Argentina in 2008.  FAEP is a program that is COMPLETELY paid for by the Academy, which sends you to a foreign military academy, Portugal in my case.  While you are at the foreign academy, you are partnered with cadets that serve as your guide to the country.  Common activities include visiting different units and cultural outings (soccer games, city tours, nightlife with locals, etc),  You are treated like royalty during your stay and have the distinct opportunity of being an embassador for the United States and West Point.  Many timies, the people you meet never interacted with cadets before and you provide that first impression we hear about so much in life.      This years program promises to be a great experience and something I know will teach me about the language, culture, and military of Portugal.  I wil continue posting throughout the trip, so stay current by logging on and checking out the new posts.  If you have any questions or comments feel free to post them.  Thank you and have a great one ;)  PORTUGAL...HERE I COME!!!   Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:55:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andres-pazmin/portugal-here-i-come/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andrew-stock/west-point-triathlon-team-1/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:43:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andrew-stock/west-point-triathlon-team-1/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andrew-stock/west-point-triathlon-team/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:42:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andrew-stock/west-point-triathlon-team/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/dan-mcgue/plebe-life/ Hey all, Today was Founder's Day at West Point.  We celebrated the 208th birthday of USMA tonight at dinner with surf and turf.  Check out the video below for a look into plebe life here at the Point. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:43:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/dan-mcgue/plebe-life/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/anderson-kim/1-more-day/ Nous sommes voyager pour France a demain. Were leaving for france tomorrow. All expense paid for, great group of people, and one crazya$$ retired french COL. STOKED!!! wish i had more time to give more info and update my info but too busy. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:10:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/anderson-kim/1-more-day/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/wayne-wall/the-adventure-continues/ Well well well... lots to talk about on this one so excuse the length. First of all lets talk about the Dead To Red Ultra Marathon Relay. What an experience THAT turned out to be. To begin, everyone on the team was so stoked about finally getting to the race that I don't think anyone got a good night's sleep the night prior. We all showed up with smiles on our faces at the starting point. It was great to finally lay eyes on the Dead Sea... looked more like a big lake across which you could see the West Bank. It was kind of cool to think "over there is where all the news has been about all these years". I couldn't really see much in the way of civilization on that side, but I knew it was there. The weather was PERFECT for a distance run, could not have asked for better. There were 26 teams of 10 competing in this year's race, which meant there was at least 52 vans, trucks, and at least one very annoying tour bus scampering throughout the night to get to the next hand-off point without running over a runner. We started out with our planned 2-km legs but quickly decided after one full iteration that we needed to cull that down to only 1-km legs. Therefore, whereas there originally was going to be time to sleep in between legs if you needed to, now there wasn't really enough time. All for the better... the one time I did try to grab a quick nap (sometime around 3am) my body went into repair mode and when I got out for my next leg I logged the slowest time in history. No more napping after that... just stay up and keep the legs warm between legs. I still don't know where we placed, but it was somewhere in the top half I believe, with a final time of 19 hours 31 minutes. It was a great time, and an interesting way to see the western edge of Jordan. Oh... and lets not forget all the bafoonery along the way... BBQ Pork Rib gel packet anyone? Me in front of the very southern part of the Dead Sea just before the race kicked off. Smiling here... not so much at the finish! If you are going to spend 20 hours running 242 km with a bunch of lunatics, might I suggest Aqaba as the finish line? On to training with the Jordanians. It has been quite the eye-opening experience. I can't really get into great detail here, but suffice to say that I've learned a lot in two weeks with them. There is so much to take into consideration when working as a new advisor to another culture. You are getting as much if not more advise than you are receiving, actually. I'm finding it challenging to strike a balance between being myself and adapting to another way of thinking. For example, we Americans have a very type-A take-charge attitude towards a lot of things. That doesn't always win the hearts and minds of Arabs. Sometimes it takes a little strategy to finesse your will into the picture. I'm not very good at this at the moment. My impulse is to try to be a good example of an American officer, to set a good example of how WE behave. But that isn't always what is needed. Sometimes you have to go against your instinct and join the chaos in order to better understand it. I still have a hard time letting go of the old standards. I'll continue to work on this. The commander I work for is turning into a good friend already. He and I share casual conversation as much as we do business talk. I asked him to describe Jordan's relationship with its neighbors and the rest of the world, and I thought I'd share his comment with you. "If you want to survive, you have to be a friend to the lion and to the mouse... the lion will eat you and the mouse will ruin all your things." An old Arab saying, but it really sums up the political landscape that Jordan is in. He also said I needed to find a "long-haired dictionary" to help me with my Arabic. I almost fell out of my chair. Didn't see that one coming. Now to Egypt... this will be the first regional travel I've conducted since arriving in Jordan, and I have to say I'm really excited. I will be traveling with one of the other FAO's and his wife and we have quite the trip planned. Two days in Aqaba kicks it off, then we take the ferry to Egypt, cross the Sinai Peninsula, and then on to Cairo, Alexandria, and a Nile river cruise to catch all the tombs and valleys of kings and such. I can't wait to lay eyes on one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. Of course, we will be spending some time at the embassy in Cairo to get a little education on the country and our role there as well. Plus... I get to see my old buddy Tom from DLI who is there doing ICT with his family. Should be a great trip. I'll be gone for about three weeks, so there might be a long delay before my next entry depending on what the internet situation is as we hop around. As always... be sure to check out the videos on my YouTube page: UncleTravelingWayne. I should have a couple more up there shortly. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:34:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/wayne-wall/the-adventure-continues/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/eric-bernau/dive-deep-fin-hard/ Long time no see!  For those of you who have followed this cadet thread you may remember that I blogged last December during Army-Navy week.  I really enjoyed sharing that week with everyone on armystrongstories.com and am very excited to do it once again with everyone as I prepare for my last Spring Break as a cadet. I am a certified SCUBA instructor through the USMA SCUBA team, which I have been a member of since my Plebe (Freshman) year.  I am also the CIC (Cadet-in-Charge) of the Spring Break trip this year and after discussing with my teammates decided to undertake the most ambitious trip the team has ever done.  We decided to go to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt this year in the bottom tip of the Sinai Peninsula.  For those of you unfamiliary with Egyptian geography, you can find Sharm el-Sheikh on the bottom tip of the Sinai peninsula on the map below Southeast of Cairo.    We depart tomorrow at 14:30 for JFK airport in NYC and then take off on a 12-hour flight at 18:30 to Cairo and then a short layover to Sharm.  There are 15 team members, 1 officer and his wife, 1 Sergeant First Class and his wife, and 21 non-team member cadets and civilian girlfriends going.  It's going to be an amazing time and everyone's been really excited for it as it draws closer to Spring Break. For the past two Tuesdays we've held refresher pool sessions for everyone to refamiliarize themselves with SCUBA diving skills before we depart.  Below is a video of SFC Miller's wife, Sheryle Miller, practicing the "trace" method to recover a lost regulator while team member Cadet Joe Sattler, '12, supervises. Here is another video from the pool session.  This one CDT Chrissy Rath, '11, and her boyfriend CDT James Whitler, '11, practice "buddy breathing," which is executed when one diver runs out of air.    Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:28:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/eric-bernau/dive-deep-fin-hard/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/william-smith/doc-part-2/   It has been awhile since my first post, Recruiting Command demands a lot of my time!     I last left off talking about my first unit, the 514th Ground Ambulance Company at FT. Lewis, WA.  I was there from 1994 to 1999, and I had a good time.  Finally though, it was time for me to move on.  I was a newly promoted E-5 and I wanted to challenge myself both mentally and physically.  The opportunity arose for me to Reenlist for Germany!  I jumped at the chance, and willingly rose my Right Hand.   My unit of assigment was 2nd BN, 2nd Infantry Regiment, part of 3rd BDE, 1st Infantry Division.  I was proud to be a part of the Army's most prestigious and battle tested Division.  I arrived in Germany to find out that my unit was in Kosovo.  My first deployment!  I was excited to go!  I was made a Platoon medic in Aco, 2-2IN.  I LOVED my job, it was everything I was hoping it would be.  I was "Doc", the guy to come to when you were sick, or injured, or just needed to talk.   I spent 6 months in Kosovo and returned to Germany to refit and train for our next deployment, which ended up being back in Kosovo, to the same place as before.  By that time I was the Senior Medic for Aco.  I was the head medical authority of the Company, the Commanders right hand man when it came to his Infantrymens' medical health.  I was in charge of 3 Platoon medics, and two M113 Tracked ambulances and the crews.  We had another succesful deployment in Kosovo, and watched the initial invasion of Iraq on the T.V.  our deployment was extended by 3 months, and we just knew that our turn would come to go to Iraq.     February 2004 we were on a plane headed to beautiful sunny Iraq.  We all knew that this would not be like our deployments to Kosovo, this was the real deal this time.  The Big Red One was ready, we were going to make our mark in Iraq, and in the history books.   We were based at FOB Normandy, near Muqdadiyah, in the Diyala province.  The BN had many fights during our time there, and always came out victorious.  We lost many good friends and leaders, especially during Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, but they did not die in vain.  The 2nd BN 2nd IN regiment will forever be in the annals of history, and in my thoughts.  I am proud to have served.   My medical skills were tested the whole year in Iraq.  I had a great Physicians Assistant, and BN Surgeon.  I learned so much there, that I could operate independently if the need arose.  I knew my stuff, and the men of Aco respected me and trusted me with their lives.   I reenlisted in Iraq, and upon our redeployment  I was moving back to FT. Lewis.  My next blog will be about my experiences as a medic in one of the Army's newest units, a Stryker BDE............ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:31:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/william-smith/doc-part-2/